Eiffel Tower's Construction From Start to Finish

The first platform of the Eiffel Tower is under construction in this undated file photo. Because of Eiffel's safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one person died during construction.

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Construction of the Eiffel Tower at the Champ-de-Mars began in January of 1887.

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Plans for the Eiffel Tower are seen in this undated file photo. The design of the Eiffel Tower was conceived by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, two senior engineers to Gustave Eiffel. It was designed by Eiffel to be the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair which celebrated the centennial of the French Revolution.

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Workers prepare the foundation of the Eiffel Tower in this April 25, 1887 file photo. The tower is comprised of 18,038 pieces of wrought iron and 2 and half million rivets. No drilling or shaping was done on site. If any part did not fit it was sent back to the factory for alteration.

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Construction continues on the Eiffel Tower in this September 1887 file photo. There were three hundred workers employed to construct the tower.

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The first platform of the Eiffel Tower is under construction in this undated file photo. Because of Eiffel's safety precautions, including the use of movable stagings, guard-rails and screens, only one person died during construction.

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The Eiffel Tower under construction in Paris, France, 1888. This image is number six in a series of 11 that Théophile Féau captured during the construction of the tower by taking photographs from the tower of the Trocadero at 15 day intervals.

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The Eiffel Tower finished with little time to spare before the opening of the Fair World of 1889. The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and on the 31st Eiffel lead a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower.

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Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years; it was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes.

Electrical workers balance high up on the Eiffel tower in Paris to change the lights that illuminate the tower at night, Oct. 29, 1937.

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Thousands of new bulbs illuminate the Eiffel Tower in Paris, June 21, 2003, after nine months of repairs temporarily darkened the monument.

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A picture taken at night shows the illuminated Eiffel Tower, Paris' most famous landmark, on September 29, 2010. The tower stands 1,063 ft tall, about the same height as an 81-story building with three levels open to visitors for looking out over Paris.

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The Eiffel Tower is illuminated during the traditional Bastille Day fireworks display in Paris, July 14, 2013.

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A man dressed as Santa Claus skates on an ice rink across from the Eiffel Tower as part of the Christmas holiday season preparations, in Paris Dec. 12, 2013.

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A man rides a bicycle on the Esplanade du Trocadero in front of the Eiffel tower, on March 11, 2014 in Paris.